Why We Don’t Need a Debt Ceiling

July 26, 2011

The debt ceiling is just a strange concept.

If the debt ceiling isn’t raised, we’ll face an absurd scenario in which Congress will have ordered the President to execute two laws that are flatly at odds with each other. If he obeys the debt ceiling, he cannot spend the money that Congress has told him to spend, which is why most government functions will be shut down. Yet if he spends the money as Congress has authorized him to he’ll end up violating the debt ceiling.

via James Surowiecki: Why We Don’t Need a Debt Ceiling : The New Yorker.